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Facebook Publishes Privacy Principles

On January 28, 2017, as part of Data Privacy Day, Facebook shared its data privacy principles for the first time. In a blog post drafted by Erin Egan, Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer, Facebook posted these principles to help users understand how data is used and managed on the site. Among other things, Facebook’s data privacy principles stress user control of privacy, the goal of protecting users’ accounts and implementing security tools (like two-factor authentication), and user ownership of information shared. Facebook also announced the launch of a new education campaign to help users understand how data privacy is handled by the company. As part of this effort, Facebook is preparing to roll out a “Privacy Center” that features important privacy settings in a single place.

This publication comes ahead of the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will be implemented on May 25, 2018. The GDPR will set stringent data privacy requirements for companies operating in the EU. In recent years, Facebook has faced scrutiny from EU regulators over its handling of user data. Facebook hopes to embrace a more transparent data privacy approach to meet all GDPR obligations.